Enhancement of lithium conductivity and evidence of lithium dissociation for LLTO-PMMA nanocomposite electrolyte

•Enhancement Li-ion conductivity σtotal~1.13×10−4 S/cm.•Confocal Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of LLTO nanoparticles.•Raman spectroscopy revealed the affinity between nitrate and LLTO nanoparticles.

We report the effect of La0.57Li0.3TiO3 (LLTO) nanoparticles addition, with different crystallite size, on the lithium conductivity of LLTO-PMMA nanocomposites. X-ray powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry analyses showed a moderate increase of the disorder on the polymer chains with the addition of LLTO nanoparticles. Confocal Raman spectroscopy analysis evidenced lithium nitrate dissociation for both LLTO-loaded and unloaded polymer. Additionally, this technique also revealed that the free nitrate anions are mostly located in the proximity of LLTO nanoparticles interface, thus evidencing its participation in the lithium dissociation on these nanocomposites. An enhancement in the lithium conductivity in more than one order of magnitude was observed for all nanocomposites, in respect to LLTO-unloaded polymer, showing a maximum lithium conductivity of σtotal~1.13×10−4 S/cm at room temperature, for a 50 nm LLTO crystallite mean size addition.

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